Stelaluna

2006 · Theatre

Fear is a treacherous friend, a cruel one, a scarecrow strutting about proud of its own ignorance. Fear feeds on the other, and grows as the reasons run out. It devours us. It needs nothing but itself. Nothing more. Fear kills, and all of us are afraid.

Afraid of flying, afraid of failing, afraid of the unknown. Afraid of fear.

I am speaking of you and of me, of us… of all of us.

Does difference frighten us? Is it so hard to stand in someone else’s skin? To understand?

Stelaluna is afraid too; it is all she has. That is why she leaves. Out of fear… and out of hunger. And she will cross the seas and the earth and the fire if she has to… And we, what shall we do? Shall we be afraid?

This show is not a show about fright. Don’t be alarmed. Have no fear, nothing is going to happen to you; at most, we hope to take a little of your fear away.

— Andrés Beladiez. Autumn 2006

Taking Janell Cannon’s magnificent tale as its starting point, Stelaluna delves into social and cultural difference to show that living together and respecting the other are possible, and enriching, once we overcome fear and open ourselves to the world. Different customs, different ways of looking at nature and at life add strength and wisdom; they do not take them away.

Stelaluna approaches, through humour and tenderness — harshly when it must, and with poetry when least expected — the reality children know in their everyday lives and which is not easy to talk about. A reality that raises questions and rarely finds answers. A reality that seems to impose itself and whose beauty we do not always know how to appreciate. Stelaluna brings it into the open and finds in it reasons to learn to love it.